So Brave, Young and Handsome by Leif Enger A Novel

Now in paperback, the new novel by Leif Enger, author of the million-copy best seller, Peace Like a River, is a lively, big-hearted redemption tale; an unforgettable, picaresque Western yarn.In 1915 Minnesota, writer Monte Becket has lost his sense of purpose. His only success long behind him, Monte lives simply with his wife and son until he befriends outlaw Glendon Hale. Plagued by guilt over abandoning his wife two decades ago, Glendon aims to go back West on a quest for absolution. As the modern age marches swiftly forward, Monte agrees to travel into Glendon’s past, leaving behind his own family for a journey that will test the depth of his loyalties and morals, and the strength of his resolve. As they flee the relentless ex-Pinkerton who’s been hunting Glendon for years, Monte falls ever further from his family and the law, to be tempered by a fiery adventure from which he may never get home.With its smooth mix of romanticism and gritty reality, So Brave, Young, and Handsome examines one ordinary man’s determination as he risks everything in order to understand what it’s all worth, and follows an unlikely dream in the hope it will lead him back home.

Unrated Critic Reviews for So Brave, Young and Handsome

Kirkus Reviews

This story has its start in 1915, just as Becket abandons his final manuscript, when a mysterious geezer in a rowboat passes his Minnesota riverfront home (with a nod toward Enger’s earlier novel, rivers run through this one) and ultimately entices Becket to join him on an adventure that will cha...

Entertainment Weekly

After Monte Becket, a blocked adventure novelist, meets Glendon Hale, a white-haired boat builder, in 1915 Minnesota, he eagerly embarks with him on a jaunt to Mexico  unaware of Hale's past as a train robber.

Chamber Four

Were I to lead off this review in the foreshadowing style Leif Enger overuses in So Brave, Young, and Handsome, I would write: “How could Enger have known that by the end of his novel, I would have decided that the constant narrative playfulness took away from my enjoyment of what could’ve been a...